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A U.S. Army paratrooper assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division pulls security during a base-defense exercise at Camp Taji, Iraq, January 19, 2020. (Specialist Caroline Schofer/US Army)

In a little-noticed development on Friday, a House panel scheduled a vote to repeal the Congressional resolution that authorized the Iraq war.

National Review has learned that the House Foreign Affairs Committee will vote next Thursday on a measure to repeal the 2002 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) against Iraq. This resolution to eliminate the Iraq War AUMF is expected to pass, likely with the support of all of the panels Democrats and Representative Peter Meijer (R., Mich.).

Repealing the 2002 AUMF and the 2001 AUMF that authorized force against those responsible for the 9/11 attacks has gained widespread popularity in both parties, as a war-weary public and top politicians have called for an end to the forever wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But ahead of the vote on repealing the 2002 measure, some Republicans say they arent convinced, warning of ongoing threats from Iran, which backs proxies and operates in Iraq.

Repeal of the 2002 AUMF is a deeply flawed idea and a dangerous mistake given our current global threats, Representative Joe Wilson, a South Carolina Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told National Review. Only two weeks ago, Iranian-backed militias attacked US troops and we must have all tools at our disposal to ensure our troops can succeed in the Global War on Terrorism protecting American families at home by defeating mass murderers overseas.

Wilson, who also leads the Republican Study Committees task force on national security, was referring to a recent rocket attack on an Iraqi air base that hosts U.S. personnel likely carried out by a group backed by Iran. No U.S. service members were killed in the incident, but an American contractor died of a cardiac incident as the rockets rained down.

That assault in early March followed an earlier, fatal rocket attack targeting coalition personnel in Iraq, which triggered a response from the White House.

President Biden responded with air strikes on an Iran-backed militias position in Syria, renewing Congressional calls to repeal what critics assert are outdated Congressional war authorizations. Since the beginning of the Biden presidency, progressive lawmakers and advocacy groups have led a push to repeal these laws, and following the airstrikes, the administration gave them a nod (though it only cited the constitution, not the 2002 AUMF, as justification for the strikes). Press secretary Jen Psaki told Politico that the White House supports efforts to replace the existing AUMFs with a narrow and specific framework.

And in a sign of how drastically the politics of these conflicts has shifted, a number of Republicans have started to sign onto such reform efforts. Senator Todd Young, an Indiana Republican, was one prominent voice during the Trump administration supporting moves to rein in the executives war powers. Hes now joined by some more of his House colleagues.

Meijer and Representative Mike Gallagher (R., Wis.) joined with Representatives Abigail Spanberger (D., Va.) and Jared Golden (D., Maine.) to introduce a bill this week that would repeal the 2002 AUMF, in addition to the 1957 and 1991 authorizations for Middle East conflicts and the Gulf War, respectively. Meijer hailed the proposal as a necessary first step towards reclaiming Congresss constitutional war powers and ending Americas forever wars, and Gallagher called those existing authorities no longer relevant, adding that their repeal would not affect ongoing operations. They argue that while the 2002 authorization has been cited as justification for certain recent military action, those acts could still be authorized under Article II of the constitution and the 2001 AUMF.

But Jim Banks, the Indiana congressman who chairs the RSC, warns that a clean repeal would hamper the presidents ability to respond to attacks. Repealing this AUMF without a replacement would be a dangerous mistake that would make America less secure. Iranian backed militias attacked Americans in Iraq just last week, he said. Repealing the AUMF now would send a dangerous message to our adversaries: attack our troops and well stand down. He cited the killing of Iranian general Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad, which the Trump administration partly justified under the 2002 authorization.

Still, Banks, Wilson, and other hawks arent totally loath to repealing the 2002 AUMF they just worry about leaving a gap in the presidents ability to use force.

The task force that Wilson leads issued a report calling the 2001 and 2002 resolutions outdated and in need of replacement. The RSC proposal suggests repealing the existing authorizations and enacting one instead that, for a specified amount of time, authorizes force against all officially designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations. This would only apply to those groups designated at the time of the bills passage to ensure that its scope cannot grow without Congressional approval.

Its unclear if the would-be AUMF repealers could go along with the innovative proposal, though. That version of AUMF reform would provide explicit statutory authority for the president to use force against the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, which President Trump designated as an FTO.

It also has yet to be seen if a full-on 2002 AUMF repeal stands a chance of passing in the senate, as long as there are concerns about limiting the presidents options when it comes to responding to foreign threats.

If one thing is clear, though, its that Congress, which once laid dormant as the executives war powers ballooned, has entered a period of heightened interested in war powers reform and this time, it might result in some concrete changes.

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GOP Hawks Warn against Repealing Iraq War Resolution ahead of Vote - National Review

Today is Friday, March 19, the 78th day of 2021. There are 287 days left in the year.

Highlight in History:

On March 19, 2013, Pope Francis officially began his ministry as the 266th pope, receiving the ring symbolizing the papacy and a wool stole exemplifying his role as shepherd of his 1.2-billion strong flock during a Mass at the Vatican.

On this date:

In 1931, Nevada Gov. Fred B. Balzar signed a measure legalizing casino gambling.

In 1942, during World War II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered men between the ages of 45 and 64, inclusive, to register for non-military duty.

In 1945, during World War II, 724 people were killed when a Japanese dive bomber attacked the carrier USS Franklin off Japan (the ship was saved). Adolf Hitler ordered the destruction of German facilities that could fall into Allied hands in his so-called Nero Decree, which was largely disregarded.

In 1962, Bob Dylans first album, titled Bob Dylan, was released by Columbia Records.

In 1977, the series finale of Mary Tyler Moore aired on CBS-TV, ending the situation comedys seven-season run.

In 1979, the U.S. House of Representatives began televising its floor proceedings; the live feed was carried by C-SPAN (Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network), which was making its debut.

In 1987, televangelist Jim Bakker resigned as chairman of his PTL ministry organization amid a sex and money scandal involving Jessica Hahn, a former church secretary.

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Today in History: President George W. Bush ordered the start of war against Iraq in 2003 - Lompoc Record

Top Border Patrol officials said officers are overwhelmed by the influx of migrants at the US-Mexico border, a spiraling crisis that intensified this week when a gun battle between rival cartel gangs broke out in a Texas town.

A week ago I would not have called this a crisis. Today it meets the definition. We are overwhelmed, Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council, told Fox News Wednesday night.

We do not have the resources to stop the cartels from bringing in illegal aliens, from bringing in drugs, therefore we are in fact in a crisis, he added.

On Tuesday, President Biden said he did not have any plans to travel to the southern border at the moment amid a surge in migrants.

Instead, Biden issued a blunt message to migrants thinking about crossing the border, saying Dont come over when asked by ABC News host George Stephanopoulos.

Dont leave your town or city or community, he added.

A senior CBP official told Fox the situation is untenable.

The president understands it is a crisis which is why he told migrants Dont come over,' the official told the network on condition of anonymity.

In undoing former President Donald Trumps border initiatives, Biden unleashed a flood of illegal migrantsat the border, including thousands of unescorted children.

In his first month in office, heended construction of Trumps signature border wall and beganto end the Remain in Mexico policyunder which about 71,000 Central American asylum applicants were awaiting rulings in Mexico.

More than 4,000 migrant children were being held by the Border Patrol as of Sunday, with at least 3,000 of them staying in custody longer than the 72-hour limit set by a court order, a US official told the Associated Press.

On Tuesday, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas described the border situation as difficult, but stopped short of calling it a crisis, according to Fox News.

The situation at the southwest border is difficult, Mayorkas said. We are working around the clock to manage it and we will continue to do so. That is our job. We are making progress and we are executing on our plan. It will take time and we will not waver in our commitment to succeed.

The CBP officials made their comments as the news outlet reported that a gunfight had erupted near Roma, a Texas community between two rival cartels.

Jaeson Jones, a former captain in theTexasDepartment of Public Safetys intelligence and counter-terror division, said its time for the federal government to focus more on the mountingcartel violence.

Veronica G. Cardenas/Reuters

Paul Ratje/Reuters

Adrees Latif/Reuters

Adrees Latif/Reuters

The Biden administration is not permitting state and local authorities...

Jones toldTucker Carlson Tonightthat he regularly witnesses gun battles in theMexicancity of Miguel Aleman,Tamaulipas, across the Rio Grande from Roma, Fox News reported.

That community has been inbattle between two cartelsfor the last two years:Cartel del Golfo The Gulf Cartel and Cartel del Noreste, known as Los Zetas by many people, Jones said.

The rest is here:
US border officials say the migrant 'crisis' getting worse

It doesnt matter how the Biden administration tries to spin it, there is undeniably a crisis underway at the southwest border. The number of illegal border crossings is up 100 percent over this time last year, and at this rate apprehensions of illegal immigrants will surpass all of 2018, 2019, and 2020 combined. As of this writing, a record number of unaccompanied migrant teens are in federal custody, with hundreds more arriving every day.

The Washington Post reports that more than 8,500 minors are in shelters run by the Department of Health and Human Services, and another 3,500 are in U.S. Border Patrol stations facilities that are basically concrete holding cells, not designed for minors or families, and not intended to house anyone for more than 72 hours. As of now, however, minors are being held for an average of 107 hours, in violation of federal law, because HHS has nowhere to place them.

The largest number of migrants held in these Border Patrol facilities during the Trump administration was 2,600 in June 2019, when President Trump was denounced by Democrats and the corporate press for putting kids in cages. The press is now predictably silent, and Democrats deny there is even a crisis.

But that, of course, has been as predictable as the crisis itself. President Biden came into office and signed a raft of executive orders that ended key Trump-era policies that had helped reduce illegal border-crossing. The effect of that shift has been profound. From the Rio Grande to Tegucigalpa, word has gone out that now is the time to migrate north, that if you can get into the United States, Biden will let you stay.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador acknowledged as much after a virtual meeting with Biden on March 1, saying, They see him as the migrant president, and so many feel theyre going to reach the United States. Mexican officials are now worried that Biden administration policies are creating a boon for organized crime, which increasingly traffics in migrants, charging each one thousands to cross the U.S.-Mexico border. Migrants have become a commodity, one Mexican official told Reuters this week.

Cartel-associated smuggling networks are making huge profits charging migrants, most of them from Central America, for passage through Mexico and into the U.S. As in previous migrant surges, smugglers commonly referred to as coyotes are advising people to bring children with them, even offering discounted rates for adults crossing with children.

The reason for the discount is simple: An adult with a child makes a smugglers job easier. Instead of trying to evade Border Patrol, adults with children simply turn themselves in to the nearest Border Patrol agents and claim asylum. In some cases, the adult is not actually the parent of the child he is traveling with, a practice that was well-documented during the 2019 border crisis.

Under the Biden administrations new border policies, which mirror the Obama-eras catch-and-release procedures, most of those claiming asylum will be released into the United States after a short time with instructions to appear before an immigration judge. This creates an enormous incentive for desperate people in Central America seeking a better life, but also enormous incentives for cartels and smuggling networks to profit off the flow of migrants. Indeed, cartels along the border have developed highly-sophisticated systems for tracking migrant payments, with most of their customers remaining in a form of debt bondage even after theyre residing in the states.

But thats just one end of the problem. By the time Central American migrants get to northern Mexico, its very difficult to prevent their crossing into the U.S., given the resources and incentives of the cartels.

The other end of the problem is in the sending countries in Central America, the so-called Northern Triangle of Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador. The corporate press and lawmakers of both parties most often focus on the poverty and gang violence in Central America but miss a more important aspect, which is the extent of official corruption in the governments of these countries. That corruption is directly tied to drug trafficking and the transnational cartels that are helping drive illegal immigration on the border.

For example, in the scrum of headlines about the royal family and President Joe Bidens dogs this week, you might have missed an important story that bears directly on all of this: The president of Honduras was implicated in a massive drug-trafficking scheme and is allegedly in the pay of transnational drug cartels.

At the opening of a trial for accused Honduran drug trafficker Geovanny Fuentes Ramrez in New York on Tuesday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jacob Gutwillig said Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernndez was an integral part of Fuentes Ramrezs trafficking operation. His operations thrived because of his connections, Gutwillig said. Mayors, congressmen, military generals, police chiefs, even the current president of Honduras. The defendant bribed them all.

One of the witnesses who will testify during the trial, added Gutwillig, was present when Hernndez said he wanted to shove the drugs right up the noses of the gringos and flood the United States with cocaine.

This isnt the first time Hernndezs name has come up in a high-profile federal trial. During a 2019 trial that led to the conviction of his brother, Juan Antonio Hernndez, the Honduran president was accused of accepting more than $1 million in bribes from the now-imprisoned former head of the Sinaloa Cartel, infamous Mexican drug trafficker Joaqun El Chapo Guzmn.

Hernndez has long denied any involvement in drug trafficking, although a filing by prosecutors in the Fuentes Ramrez case confirmed he is under investigation by U.S. authorities, according to the Associated Press.

The reason all this matters to the migrant crisis underway at the border is that, to put it bluntly, putatively sovereign states like Honduras are in a state of collapse. Ordinary people in these countries, encouraged by the Biden administration, are making a rational and reasonable choice to travel north and get into the United States by any means possible.

As countries like Honduras continue to implode under the weight of corruption and collusion with cartels, people in those countries will keep coming north. Turning them away, as the Trump administration did, is only a partial fix. Allowing them in, as the Biden administration is doing, enriches cartels by providing them a nearly unlimited supply of paying customers (and victims). It also creates a humanitarian crisis in South Texas and other border states, as were now seeing.

In the long run, the United States cant continue its long-standing policy of benign neglect of our southern neighbors. The chaos and corruption that plague those countries will, one way or another, make its way to us eventually. At that point, it will be too late to stop an illegal immigration crisis that wont number in the tens or even hundreds of thousands, but the millions.

Photo U.S. Customs and Border Protection

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The Migrant Crisis Isnt Just At The Border, It Stretches ...

The border crisis has sparked renewed criticism from former President Donald Trump and a promise from President Biden that hell travel south to see the migrant mess for himself.

Both spoke late Sunday after U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas declared the border is closed.

Trump, from his 45 Office email account, ripped Mayorkas for what he called a pathetic, clueless performance on Sunday morning news shows.

Even someone of Mayorkas limited abilities should understand that if you provide Catch-and-Release to the worlds illegal aliens then the whole world will come, Trump said of the migration flood.

Trump also lashed out at Biden for what he called a gag order on Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.

They must immediately complete the wall, which can be done in a matter of weeks they should never have stopped it. They are causing death and human tragedy, Trump said.

He added the flow of migrants is allowing drugs human and sex trafficking to mix in with the migrants encouraging crimes against humanity.

He added: Our Country is being destroyed!

Biden, according to a White House pool report, said when asked if hes thinking of going to the border: At some point I will, yes.

When asked why isnt the message to migrants to stay home resonating and can more be done, Biden responded: A lot more. Were in the process of doing it now, including making sure that we re-establish what existed before, which was they can stay in place and make their case from their home country.

Mayorkas spoke on four Sunday talk shows as conditions at the U.S.-Mexico border worsen.

Fox News reported Sunday that border agents in the key Rio Grande Valley Sector are processing and releasing migrants who claim asylum without issuing a Notice to Appear.

Mayorkas said he is trying to roll out orderly systems in Mexico and Central America to discourage would-be migrants from traveling to the U.S. border. That is similar in some ways to what the Trump administration did to stem the tide of illegal immigration during the pandemic.

Biden quickly moved to undo some of Trumps anti-immigration measures right after being elected. It was a rollback interpreted by some as a signal to travel to the United States.

We have seen large numbers of migration in the past. We know how to address it. We have a plan. We are executing on our plan and we will succeed, Mayorkas said.

But, he added, it takes time and is especially challenging and difficult now because of the Trump administrations moves. So we are rebuilding the system as we address the needs of vulnerable children who arrived at our borders.

Congressional Republicans blame Biden for policies they say are encouraging a new wave of immigrants. Mayorkas, and many Democrats, says fault lies with Trump and his administration, which they argue left behind an inhumane and inadequate system to deal with influx.

Associated Press material was used in this report.

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Trump slams migrant crisis; Biden administration declares border is closed - Boston Herald